Henry Samuel is the Telegraph's France correspondent and has been living and working in the country for 12 years.

Who will have the last laugh, Gordon or Nicolas?

Turning on French radio news last night, the top story was on Gordon Brown being heckled for his slip - Freudian or otherwise – about saving the "world" not the "banks".

Strange, you might think that this should be top of the news agenda. Think again. This certainly was news to French listeners, who have been assured over the past month that it is their great leader, Super Sarko, who is wearing the superhero hot pants – or at the very least he is Batman and Gordon Robin.

Watching pandemonium break out in the Commons it struck me that Britain should be thankful for the fact that its "master of the universe" can at least be brought down to earth with a bout of hysteria, thigh-slapping and ridicule thanks to a lively, combative opposition.

Sadly that never happens here, as the President is not allowed in the National Assembly even if he were masochistic enough to willingly expose himself to such mockery. That said, given the terrible disarray of the French Socialist opposition, the hilarity would never reach such heights.

Only deputies from Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party are ever given a chance to quiz the President, and even then only in a closed door question and answer session â€“ hardly likely to produce such high jinks.

They did so yesterday for two hours, and it was far from a laugh a minute. In leaks we learn that one vaguely harangued him over a controversial law to relax French rules on working on Sundays, and another questioned his plan to overhaul state television and do away with adverts – neither side-splitters.

But in amongst the dross sparkled one refreshingly lucid observation on the fragility of the President's regal status. It followed a suggestion by a liberal that he should offer "tax amnesty" to those French who agree to repatriate their capital to the mother country. "I'm not that crazy!," snapped Sarko. "The French love it when I'm in a carriage with Carla (the first lady), but at the same time they did guillotine the king (Louis XVI). In the name of symbols, they can overthrow the country. They are regicidal. Just look at what's going on in Greece…"

This is when you start realising that actually Gordon should be grateful for a bit of public humiliation.

Parliament can provide a satisfying release for the public's pent up anger and frustration in what its leader is doing to the country. Deprived of such venting, the French when they're really angry just take to the streets. Sarkozy correctly understands that no amount of super heroism â€“ real or imagined – will remove that threat.